Book Review- The School for Good and Evil, by Soman Chainani

 

Book Review- The School for Good and Evil, by Soman Chainani

SPOILERS ALERT (duh)

Synopsis:

            “The first kidnappings happened two hundred years before. Some years it was two boys taken, some years two girls, sometimes one of each. But if at first the choices seemed random, soon the pattern became clear. One was always beautiful and good, the child every parent wanted as their own. The other was homely and odd, an outcast from birth. An opposing pair, plucked from youth and spirited away.”
This year, best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all the lost children go: the fabled School for Good & Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. As the most beautiful girl in Gavaldon, Sophie has dreamed of being kidnapped into an enchanted world her whole life. With her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, she knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Meanwhile Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks, wicked pet cat, and dislike of nearly everyone, seems a natural fit for the School for Evil.
But when the two girls are swept into the Endless Woods, they find their fortunes reversed—Sophie’s dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School For Good, thrust amongst handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.. But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are…?
The School for Good & Evil is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one.

Book Review:

I found the School for Good and Evil at the library, and, knowing me and my love for fairy-tale adaptations, just HAD to check it out.

                My initial reaction when I finished it was Holy mother of penguins. And then. STUPID CLIFFHANGERS, and finally what is this book that has literally changed my life???

                I enjoyed it.

                Soman Chainani did an amazing job of showing us Sophie’s distain and anger, as well as Agatha’s bitterness and confusion. Actually, both the girls were confused for a good part of the book as to why they had been placed where they were- Sophie, the beautiful one, in Evil, and Agatha, the ugly, self-proclaimed witch in Good. I felt like the author really empathized their relationship, and wrote their thoughts and feelings so perfectly that I saw everything from their alternate points of view. Which is to say, each girl had different opinions, and each time I read something from one or the others' view, I was immediately swayed to see everything in their perspective.

                The final plot curve that the whole book was sort of built around, the fact that Agatha, the “witch”, belongs at the School for Good and Sophie at the School for Evil, was visible almost from the first page. I think it was meant as a shocker. In the end, I felt like the author was trying to say that beauty isn’t everything, and being ugly doesn’t always make you evil. So don't judge a book by its cover, kids.

               The battle at the end was absolutely magnificent, and the whole fairy-tale-love-triangle thing was beautifully written, and I enjoyed every single minute.

                Just know that the focus of the book is not the love triangle. It is just there for Sophie and Agatha as the means to an end. The love interest is a jerk, though, and only likes Sophie for her looks, but is also completely focused on the prince being the one to save his princess, which I found extremely irritating.

                But all in all, I enjoyed The School For Good And Evil more than I can say.

                Five out of five stars.

Note- This is also going to be a movie- Universal bought the rights to it, and the price was in the seven digits range. (EEP.)